The chronological is the most common resume format. It lists your most recent job at the top of the page, and then continues down to your earliest job. Chronological resumes can range from a simple career summary to a more elaborate description of work responsibilities. This format is effective when you have a continuous employment history and your past experience related directly to the positions for which you are applying.

Chronological is a good choice when:

You’ve worked a while in your chosen field, and you want to call attention to your very stable work history.

You want to call attention to consistent upward mobility and promotions in your career.

You are applying for a job in a conservative field where a traditional format is expected.

You think your next employer would be more comfortable with a traditional-looking resume.

If you choose a chronological resume, be sure you don’t load it down with boring job duties starting off with “responsibilities included”! Make sure, instead, that you show what you accomplished on each job and how your actions benefited your company. Focus particularly on activities that are similar to what you want to do in your new job, things you can get jazzed about when you discuss them in the job interview.

The functional resume highlights your skills and accomplishments rather than your work history. It lists things you’re good at and things you’ve accomplished at the top of the page, and then summarizes the jobs you’ve held at the end. The functional format is effective when you are switching fields or industries. On the other hand, a functional resume highlights key skills and downplays work experience. If you choose a functional resume, be sure to focus on the skills that support your new job goal.

Functional is a good choice when:

For career changers making a radical career shift.

Job seekers with limited work histories, including excessive job-hopping and employment gaps.

You have little or no paid work experience.

Your job titles don’t do justice to your abilities, accomplishments and responsibilities. You want to draw attention to your skills that apply to your future job goals, and play down your past job content.

The chrono-functional/hybrid/combination resume highlights outstanding skills and achievements that might otherwise be buried within the job history section while simultaneously presenting, yet deemphasizing, the chronology of jobs. The focus is on clusters of transferrable skills and experiences that are most relevant to the position for which you are applying. If you are open to more than one type of job, you can reconfigure the functional skills clusters to emphasize the skills most relevant to the particular job you seek.

This resume format focuses on work experience, providing a reverse-chronological employment history and ample detail about job duties and accomplishments. This type of resume works for applicants on a steady career track, because it emphasizes work experience. The combination resume incorporates the best of the chronological and functional formats. Generally, it leads with a description of functional skills and related qualifications, followed by a reverse-chronological employment history.

This format allows you to state your most relevant qualifications up front, while providing the employment timeline that many hiring managers like to see. The disadvantage is that this hybrid format still includes a detailed employment history, so job-hopping, gaps and unrelated experience will be more apparent than they would be in a functional resume.

Technical Resume Format

Once you developed your resume, your final step is to determine whether your need multiple versions of your resume based on how you will deliver your resume to recipients. More than 80 percent of employers are now placing resumes directly into searchable databases and an equal percentage of employers prefer to receive resumes by email. This means that it’s an absolute must these days to have:

A formatted, “print” resume in document form that you can send as an attachment to an email message to the employer.

A text-based (ASCII text) email stripped of most formatting and pasted directly into the same email message sent to the employer (can also be pasted into application/resume submission forms on online job boards).

Sending your resume in text-based format directly in an email message removes all obstacles to an employer’s placing your resume right into a searchable database. If that’s the case, why do you still need the formatted, “print” resume in document form sent as an attachment. Because the employer may want to print out your resume to review it, especially once the database search has narrowed down the candidates. The formatted, print version will be more reader-friendly than the text-based version

Quick Rundown:

Text (ASCII) resume, which removes all formatting and allows the resume to appear the same in all email systems—and allows for easy placement into employer resume databases.

Rich Text (RTF) version, sometimes used for online job boards (such as Monster, FlipDog, HotJobs) or for sending as an attachment that is reasonably compatible across platforms and word-processing programs.

Portable Document Format (PDF) resume is also highly compatible and consistent in appearance across platforms, though difficult to place directly into databases.

Web-based resume in hypertext markup language (HTML) to make your resume available 24/7 on the Web. Easily expandable into a Web portfolio.

Scannable resume, which is similar to a text resume although used increasingly less often these days since emailed resumes can go directly into databases and don’t require the extra steps of optical scanning.

In today’s job market, resumes need to be modified and fine-tuned at a drop of the hat, as well as available in multiple versions. In fact, electronic resume versions are taking over as the most popular formats for resumes. Still, there will probably be a need for years to come for attractive, eye-catching print resumes with appropriately organized content.